7 January – Telford, the new town created in Shropshire some 20 years ago, is reported to have the highest unemployment rate in the West Midlands region, even eclipsing the unemployment levels seen in the city of Birmingham and nearby towns including Wolverhampton, Brierley Hill, Wednesbury and Bilston, which have lost a large percentage of traditional heavy industry since the late 1970s, although Brierley Hill's unemployment crisis is beginning to ease with the ongoing development of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, which already includes two retail parks and a large shopping mall and is set to expand even further by the end of the decade.

25 May - Aldershot F.C. become the first team to win promotion through the new Football League playoffs, winning promotion from the Fourth Division with a 3-0 aggregate win over their illustrious opponents Wolverhampton Wanderers (who have a total of eight major trophies to their name, the most recent just seven years ago). The Hampshire club have already condemned another illustrious side, Bolton Wanderers (four times FA Cup winners) to relegation to the Fourth Division for the first time in their history.

3 June – The last MORI poll before the general election shows the Conservatives 11 points ahead of Labour with 43% of the vote, while the Liberal/SDP Alliance's support stands at 24% and their hopes of building on their result at the last election look exceedingly slim.[7]

18 June – Unemployment has fallen below 3,000,000 for the first time since late 1981 after the biggest monthly fall in unemployment since records began in 1948 seeing more than 100,000 of the unemployed find jobs in May.

October - Construction work begins on the extension to the M40 motorway between Oxford and Birmingham. It is hoped that the motorway, providing an alternative route to the M6 and M1 from the midlands to London as well as improving road links with the midlands and the South Coast ports, will be fully operational by 1990.[28]

25 October – Peugeot begins production of its second car – the 405 four-door saloon – at the Ryton plant near Coventry. The first customers are set to take delivery of their cars after Christmas. A French-built estate version will be launched next year.

11 November – Customs officers in Southampton seize more than £50 million worth of cocaine – the most expensive haul of the drug ever found in Britain.

12 November – The national unemployment rate is now below 10 percent for the first time since the summer of 1982, with the current total of unemployed people at just over 2,700,000 – the lowest for six years.

17 November – The government announces that the Poll tax (community charge) will be introduced in April 1990.

The British-built Peugeot 405 is European Car of the Year, and Peugeot's first winner of the award for nearly 20 years. British sales begin in the new year, several months after it was launched in France.

17 December – A year that has seen an excellent recovery for the British economy ends with unemployment at less than 2,700,000.

25 December – ITV enjoys a record breaking audience when more than 26,000,000 viewers tune in for the Christmas Day episode of Coronation Street, in which Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander) makes her last appearance in the show after 23 years.